I got War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, and The Martian War by Kevin J Anderson under a psydonim and Aftermath by Nerfherder. So that's three and The War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives on the H.G. Wells Classic (The novel and essays by leading writers on it. One about how crap at war the Martians were he he.

I've read The Martian War, not a bad book and quite funny in places, but I got a little irritated with Anderson constantly patting himself on the back with how much research into the subject he had done, it was too much like a name-dropper at a party.
I would be interested in your views of 'War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches' most of what I've heard is not favorable, it would be good to get a writers perspective.

I've read The Martian War, not a bad book and quite funny in places, but I got a little irritated with Anderson constantly patting himself on the back with how much research into the subject he had done, it was too much like a name-dropper at a party.I would be interested in your views of 'War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches' most of what I've heard is not favorable, it would be good to get a writers perspective.

Sounds like he's ripped of Alan Moore's league of extraordinary gentlemen from the bits I've read about the martian war. He even gives the Invisible Man the same first name as Moore, which wasn't in the Wells' novel. Hawley.
Hmmm but hopefully I'll enjoy it.

I've read bad stuff about Dispatches too, which is why it took me so long to getting round to it.

Yes it is similar to the league of extraordinary gentlemen except all the fictional characters are from Wellsian books such as 'The Island of Dr Moreau, The Food of the Gods and The First Men in the Moon,
I hadn't noticed the use of the same name, I think you are right I believe Wells just referred to the Invisible Man as Griffin.
I hope you do enjoy them, let us know your views.
I've started work on my own book and it's turning out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. when you read a good book, the story flows, has it's own rhythm, I had never noticed that before but I have now. Perhaps I should stick to art, as I'm never going to be a Dickens or a Wells.

First draft is easier to write. Find a character who's voice you can easily write in and it should flow. But writing is hard. However look at this as a first of many drafts. The first draft will be all over the place. The structure will be wonky and things will be wrong with it for sure but that's normal. You reshape it and better it in later drafts.

You are right my story was all over the place, when I read through it again last night I could see where I had gone wrong instantly and I'm sure I'll see more obvious errors when I read it again.

One of my mistakes was, I got sidetracked into explaining something half way through a dramatic scene, which slowed everything down and interrupted the flow.
And another thing I do is use the same word too many times, some times in the same sentence.

I'm starting my story 13 years after the Martians second invasion, which was very short and very devastating and worldwide, Mankind is on the edge of extinction. I will go back and explain what happened in the second attack in a later chapter, but I wanted to start with a bit of a bang.

You are right my story was all over the place, when I read through it again last night I could see where I had gone wrong instantly and I'm sure I'll see more obvious errors when I read it again.

One of my mistakes was, I got sidetracked into explaining something half way through a dramatic scene, which slowed everything down and interrupted the flow.And another thing I do is use the same word too many times, some times in the same sentence.

I'm starting my story 13 years after the Martians second invasion, which was very short and very devastating and worldwide, Mankind is on the edge of extinction. I will go back and explain what happened in the second attack in a later chapter, but I wanted to start with a bit of a bang.

Starting with a bang is the way to go. Good instinct there. readers want to get stuck in straight away nowadays. Sounds very good.

Use your thesaurus. when you have a word look up similar words to replace it with.

By the way, I would suggest saving your 'sidetracks' as notes for your next draft. Obviously, you want to give those details at some other point(s) in the story, during flashbacks or wherever. At least you recognised that putting that kind of background info into the middle of a scene wasn't the best way to go.

While I'm not a professional writer, I had begun pursuing writing as a minor in college, and still write an occasional thing now and again; short stories mostly. Honestly, I'd like to get more involved and actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and finish a few things I've had in progress over the last few years. So my hat's off to you for making the effort. It might be a bumpy road to travel at first, but it should get easier as you go along.

One thing I've done for myself is to jot down any ideas I come up with on a separate page. They don't have to be in any specific context, nor even very detailed, but sometimes they actually are really detailed. The point is to get the stuff down before Real Life gets in the way and I forget the idea. I can polish it up later, and fit it into the story's continuity as the main work takes shape. Or else I can decide that it wouldn't fit at all and not use it. But at least I've got it around as an option.

Heck, one time I was involved in a lighthearted conversation with a total stranger, but it was very enjoyable to me and felt like it had the possibility of being the start of a friendship, had circumstances been different. (We parted ways and haven't seen each other since.) But I jotted down some of the basics of that conversation, and later ended up using it as an introduction to two characters in a story who were meeting for the first time. It wasn't a pivotal scene in the grand scheme of the story, but some of the chatty small talk felt realistic because, well, it was realistic.

Sorry to have gotten so off-topic. Should we make a thread for 'creative writing' and continue there?

Thanks 'Loz' & 'craigr' for the advice.
I have been using the thesaurus for a little while now and it has helped a lot.
And as for jotting down notes. The side of my PC and monitor are covered with little yellow post-it stickers I learned my lesson while doing the Invasion of Earth, so many things I intended to include but then forgot because I didn't take notes at the time.

craigr wrote:

Sorry to have gotten so off-topic. Should we make a thread for 'creative writing' and continue there?

It's my fault we are off topic, If you like we could start another thread, I always check for new threads whenever I log on.

Thanks 'mrgrotey'
Very kind of you to say that.
And well spotted on the typo, Loz usually spots those for me and I'll correct them for my revised copy and before I print it into my portfolio.

I was thinking of posting it in the same format as I have it in my Portfolio, Six images to a page, then if someone wants to print it out it's already laid out on A4 sheets ready to print. There are 125 pages, so it would still cost quite a bit in ink.

There are extra (Never seen before) pictures in the portfolio version and hopefully all the spelling errors have been corrected, as well as any continuity problems.

Shall we proofread the portfolio version in order to catch any typos that may have slipped through? Or at the very least, re-read this version and report any & all typos, so you can double check the reports against your portfolio version. (I've found that going back after a short time away from a project helps me to spot mistakes; fresh eyes on the task, so to speak. Also, reading aloud the text helps, too.)

Shall we proofread the portfolio version in order to catch any typos that may have slipped through? Or at the very least, re-read this version and report any & all typos, so you can double check the reports against your portfolio version. (I've found that going back after a short time away from a project helps me to spot mistakes; fresh eyes on the task, so to speak. Also, reading aloud the text helps, too.)

You can do if you like but if you find any I shall probably cry You can point them out and if they are big mistakes I may do something about it, All comics have errors in them, on the forum I have been visiting lately there is a picture of a Marvel comic cover, called "The first Men in the Moon" by Jules Verne. hopefully none of my cock-ups are that big.

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